Hachette India

Once Upon a Winter's Heart

Melody Carlson

Emma Burcelli has given up on romance. Not just because she's suffered over a decade of dating disasters. Not because her parents' marriage ended on New Year's Eve. No, Emma concludes that love is officially dead when her grandfather Poppi passes away, leaving the last true romantic's other half, Nona Burcelli, devastated.

Emma helps by working in the family's bookstore, which Nona insists must be completely decked out in sweetheart dÃ©cor as Poppi would have done for Valentine's Day. Although Emma feels like a V-Day Scrooge, she quickly learns to enjoy the task with the aid of a handsome volunteer and friend of Poppi's, Lane Forester. As Emma spends time with Lane, sharing stories about Poppi, ice skating in the street, and hanging hearts to the tune of Dean Martin, she reconsiders the possibility that romance is alive.
But just as Emma's heart begins to lift she learns her sister has already staked a claim on Lane's affections. Emma's mother and sister insist Lane only sees her as a future sister-in-law, but Emma can't help wondering if it could be something more.

Melody Carlson

Over the years Melody Carlson has worn many hats from pre-school teacher to youth counselor to political activist to senior editor. But most of all she is a writer who loves to write! She is a bestselling and award-winning author of more than 200 books for children teens and adults--with sales totaling more than five million. Carlson's passion for 'true to life' fiction has had great success for both the young adult and women's markets. Informed and aware of the challenges and struggles facing teens today she writes young adult novels that she hopes will change lives and women's fiction to which women of all ages can relate. Her popular series Diary of a Teenage Girl (Multnomah) has sold more than 600000 copies and her popular Christmas novellas have sold over 250000 copies combined. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. They enjoy skiing hiking gardening camping and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.